The experiences your puppy has during their first few months of life are extremely formative. Positive and negative encounters at this age can impact your puppy’s emotional development and influence their feelings towards things like vet visits in the future.
It’s important to build a strong positive emotional experience from the moment they step through the clinic’s doors. Follow these tips to ensure your puppy’s first few vet visits are positive ones.
Tip 1: Familiarise your puppy with the vet clinic before their first appointment
One of the best things you can do to help your puppy feel relaxed at the vet is taking them in for some ‘fun’ visits to the clinic before they even need to go in for their first proper checkup. The goal is to let your puppy make friends with the vet team and get used to the building in a low stress, fun way.
It’s best to try and pick a quiet, calm time when the staff are available to shower your puppy with affection. You want this to be a good experience, so speak to your veterinary team about the best time for you to visit. When you do go, take plenty of treats and some of your puppy’s favourite toys to encourage your puppy to play and explore.
Remember to pack treats
Start giving lots of treats as soon as you arrive at the clinic to create plenty of good associations with the space. You can even start out in the car park. As you head inside, continue giving treats and praise. Reward positive behaviours, such as your puppy wanting to greet or play with the clinic’s staff, as well as calm behaviours, like if they seem nice and relaxed.
For a longer distraction, smear your puppy’s favourite food and treats onto a lick mat and freeze it. The mat provides something desirable for your puppy to focus on for a longer period than a small treat, and licking encourages the production of calming endorphins.
Watch your puppy’s behaviour closely
It’s important to pay attention to your puppy’s body language during this familiarisation visit. Reward them for positive behaviours and encourage interaction if they are asking for it, but respect their space and do not force them to do things if they are showing signs of fear or stress. Let them take it at their own pace.
Ideally, do not let your puppy contact any other animals on the first visits, as this is often stressful in a strange environment. Your vet team will give your new puppy plenty of cuddles and attention to make this a fun experience — if your puppy is comfortable to take this step.
Tip 2: Get your puppy used to being handled at home
One aspect of visiting the vet that can be stressful for dogs is the restraint or handling involved when the vet is performing a proper health check, administering medications (especially injections) or collecting samples for diagnostic tests. However, it doesn’t have to be. Your dog can be conditioned to associate these things with positive emotions and even to comfortably participate in the process.
Most of this handling training needs to be started at home, and it’s never too early to get your puppy used to some of the basics. A good starting point is to get your puppy used to having their paws, ears and tail touched, as well as letting you open their mouth. Not only does this help the vets, but it also helps make future grooming, nail trims, and tooth brushing easier for you.
Tip 3: Use calming pheromones like Adaptil
Adaptil is a synthetic equivalent of the canine mammary gland pheromone, the pheromone secreted by a lactating female dog to relax her puppies. It comes as a spray which can be applied to a bandana or shirt that your puppy can wear, or as a collar.
Tip 4: Let your puppy play before their vet appointment
Provide your puppy with some physical activity and mental enrichment before heading to the vet so that they are calm and relaxed before they arrive.
A short walk or a run around in the back yard, a chance to go to the toilet, and engaging with a challenging toy can be a great way to burn off some energy and settle them before heading to the vet. Interactive dog toys like puzzle toys, treat dispensing toys, snuffle mats and lick mats are all good options to engage your puppy’s mind.
Bonus tip: bring your puppy’s health records to the appointment
It’s a good idea to organise your puppy’s health information in a single, easily accessible location. A folder containing their important medical records, parasite prevention and vaccine history, diagnostic testing results, microchip number and dietary information works well, and is easy to bring with you to appointments. If your puppy is taking any medication, it’s also useful to bring it along to their checkup.
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